The Arraignments session in the Supreme Court was busy yesterday with cases which ranged from drug importation to local entrepreneurs cultivating cannabis.

There were 16 individuals charged in new cases and 18 appeared for mention in an array of alleged criminal offences.

The court played host to cases of drug importation, possession of controlled substances with the intent to supply, assault, grievous bodily harm, kidnapping, counterfeiting, fraud, unlawful carnal knowledge with girls under 14 and cultivating backyard crops of cannabis. Unless otherwise stated, defendants will return for mention on September 4 in the next monthly arraignments session.

Purse-snatcher Tyrone Sinclair Brangman, 16, will be sentenced for his role in the violent mugging of 77 year old Josie Ray.

Mrs. Ray, the wife of William (Cheese) Ray, is still in a coma at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. She is not expected to recover after suffering head injuries and a broken wrist in the attack outside the Southampton Post Office. Meanwhile, Dean Leslie Eve, 32, of Cedar Park Road, Devonshire, pleaded not guilty to attempting to rob a female tourist at Albuoys Point in Hamilton on April 5.

Eve also pleaded not guilty to causing actual bodily harm on the visiting lawyer. Alleged Police impersonator Richard Michael Shaun Dill, 34, of Long Bay Lane, Sandys, pleaded not guilty to robbing someone and also for pretending to be a member of the Police service on March 29. Devonshire resident Jermaine Alton Johnson, 21, of Tribe Lane, will go on trial on August 4 for causing grievous bodily harm to a man on March 19.

Meanwhile Kenneth Ralph Burrows, 33, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to robbery and will be sentenced on July 28.

Denton Jermaine Parris, 32, of no fixed abode, also pleaded not guilty to committing a robbery which occurred on March 5.

Marco Lovell, 23, of no fixed abode, will go on trial on December 2 for assaulting and robbing Osdale Rochester in St. George's on February 15. On the drugs scene two British nationals, hailing from Northumberland, were picked up at the Bermuda International Airport for allegedly importing illegal substances.

Dana Marie Francis, 26, and Errol Keith Fenty, 48, both pleaded not guilty to importing cocaine and being in possession of the drug that was intended for supply. A 38-year-old South American pleaded guilty yesterday to smuggling cocaine into the Island.

The Venezuelan national, Alfredo Antonio Delgado Rios, will be sentenced on July 11.

Meanwhile alleged local importer, Dudley Allen Lightbourne, 43, of Cedar Hill, Warwick, pleaded not guilty to importing cocaine and being in possession of the controlled drug with the intent to supply on April 9 of this year.

Guatemalan visitor, Silvia Yahira Mejia Esquival, 27, needed an interpreter to inform the court that she had pleaded not guilty to importing cocaine and to being in possession of cannabis with the intent to supply. Jamaican national Lincoln George Brown, 35, of Rock Valley, Warwick, pleaded not guilty to the importation of cocaine with the intention of supplying it.

Also Pembroke resident, Bryant Clarke Tucker pleaded guilty to two charges of importing diamorphine and cocaine.

However the Mount View Road inhabitant, pleaded not guilty to two charges of possession of controlled drugs with the intent to supply, violently resisting arrest, two charges of assaulting Police officers and also attempting to escape lawful custody, which occurred on April 14 of this year. Crown Counsel Juan Wolffe said all the other charges could be left on file and August 5 was set for sentencing.

Caribbean neighbours Barris Dawkins (aka Rudolph Everton Pusey), 46, will be sentenced in his part of importing more than $1.8 million of heroin. Although, co-defendant Andrew Nathaniel Hall, 38, from Montego Bay, maintains his innocence. Both Jamaicans will re-appear at the next arraignment session on September 2, Hall for a trial date and Pusey will appear for a sentencing date.

A self confessed local drug importer Quinton Eugene Wade, 38, of Elliott Street, Pembroke, will be sentenced on August 5 for smuggling cocaine on July 23, 2002. Mr. Wolffe kept the other charges of possession with the intent to supply and possession of cannabis on file.

Former Police officer Clifford Stanley Roberts, 33, of Devonshire, will return for mention on December 1. Roberts, a former narcotics officer, is charged with five counts of conspiring to import and to importing controlled drugs.

Two alleged cannabis farmers Max Robert Moniz, 28, and Robert Norman Moniz, 45, pleaded not guilty to cultivating cannabis. Max Moniz pleaded not guilty to two counts of being in possession of a controlled drug, which was intended for supply and being in possession of a scale. And Robert Moniz pleaded not guilty to being in possession of cannabis and for being in possession of a scale and pay type envelopes. Individuals alleged to have caused grievous bodily harm or other forms of assault also turned up in their numbers yesterday. Leading the pack was George (Messy) McDonald Liburd, 29, of Pembroke, pleaded not guilty to wounding with intent and causing actual bodily harm to a man on July 2, 2002.

Taxi driver Lloyd Hilton Smith, 53, of no fixed abode, pleaded not guilty to unlawfully attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to Nicole Janee Lambert, depriving her of her freedom and to being in possession of an offensive weapon on March 1 of this year.

A Paget 19-year-old will go to trial on July 14 for causing grievous bodily harm. Jordan Scott Outerbridge was also charged with being in possession of an offensive weapon on June 16 of last year.

And Gregory Millington Johnson changed his guilty pleas to not guilty. He was charged with wounding with intent and possession of an offensive weapon.

Two men were charged with having sexual relations with girls under the age of 14.

First up was a Somerset 21-year-old who pleaded not guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge with a girl under the age of 14. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will appear for mention on September 2. Joining him in a similar charge was a Pembroke man, who also cannot be named for legal reasons. A 34-year-old Somerset man, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting his estranged wife, will be sentenced on July 17. Meanwhile a handful of people turned up on matters of fraud and counterfeiting.

Lawyer and former politician Julian Sinclair Hall will not have to return for mention until December 1, as he will not get a trial before the new year.

Hall, of Foothills Road, Devonshire, is alleged to have stolen more than $500,000 from an elderly widow between November 8, 1995 and February 20, 1996. Alleged counterfeiter Lloyd Mitchell Burch will return to court for mention on August 4.

The 24-year-old, of Woodlawns Road, Sandys, is charged with 292 counts of forging $50 notes between April 2000 and October 2001.

A former Bermuda Housing Corporation employee, Dana Edward Martin, will be sentenced on July 9 for defrauding unsuspecting investors of more than $100,000. Martin, 43, of Home Port Drive, Hamilton Parish, is waiting for a Bermuda Assessment and Referral Centre BARC report for his drug addictions.

And lastly Toriano Elmario Dunkley, 32, of Sugar Apple Lane, Pembroke, pleaded not guilty to two counts of breaking into homes.